Tribute Page
Paul Poiesz, an alumnus, coached track at Bishop McDevitt for 25
seasons, winning 14 Catholic League championships (two shared, 12 outright).
After shareds in 1982 and 1985, he won his first outright crown in 1986,
thanks in large part to football stars Tom Taylor and Mark Dianno.
Here is that story . . .
By Tom
Mahon
Bishop McDevitt quarterback Tom Taylor threw exceptionally well, and
wingback Mark Dianno never ran better. And when it was over, the Lancers had
scored 113 points without scoring a touchdown or kicking a field goal.
Taylor wasn't tossing a football, but hurling a javelin. And Dianno, who
usually breaks through defensive linemen, instead was breaking the tape at
the finish line. Together, they led Bishop McDevitt to the Catholic League
outdoor track and field championship yesterday at Father Judge High School.
Taylor was named the most valuable athlete in the field events, no small
feat when you consider that he only competed in one. However, there was
nothing small about his performance. Taylor hurled the javelin 192 feet, 3
1/2 inches on a day when the guy who finished second - La Salle's Wes
Waninger - managed only 177-6 1/2.
Taylor said he should have done better.
"I was nervous," Taylor said. "A lot of people said, 'Oh, you're going to
walk away with it,' but there's always that nervousness in competition -
until you get your first couple of throws in. It's just like in football,
where you're nervous until you get that first hit.
"I still love football first, but I started throwing (the javelin) as a
sophomore when a guy named Mike Visey, a friend of mine, taught me how to
throw it. He said it would probably help develop my arm for football."
It did. But it wasn't until McDevitt added a new field events coach to
its staff that Taylor started to develop his arm for the javelin.
"When I was a sophomore, I was only throwing 144 and I finished eighth in
the Catholic League," said Taylor, who now is a senior. "But last year I got
a new coach named Bob Supplee and I won it all with a 175. The difference
was a lot of work during the indoor season.
"He (Supplee) got me throwing the shot put in the same overhand motion as
you throw a javelin. A shot put weighs 12 pounds and a javelin weighs 1
pound, 12 ounces. That helped develop my arm and helped me go from eighth to
first."
But yesterday's success wasn't quite enough for Taylor, who was
disappointed that he didn't break the Catholic League record of 220-9, set
in 1979.
"That was my goal coming in," Taylor said. "I just had trouble because
there was a tailwind. I was getting the point of my javelin up and the
tailwind was blowing it right down. That kind of disappointed me. But I'll
go home and think about it and it'll eventually hit me that I'm the best
javelin thrower in the Catholic League. And then I'll smile and I'll be
happy."
Another person who will be smiling for quite a while is Dianno, who was
presented with the first annual Jim Henry award from the Maxwell Club as the
best high school football player in the five-county area during the past
season.
Dianno won four medals at yesterday's meet. He ran the first leg of the
winning 4 x 100 relay, which finished in 43.25 seconds to break a school
record of 43.3. He finished second in the 110-high hurdles and third in the
long jump and triple jump.
The only athlete who had a better day than Dianno was Roman Wallace of
St. James, who placed first in four events and won the most valuable athlete
award for the running events. Wallace, as expected, won the same four events
this year as last: the 100 hurdles (14.72), long jump (22-2 1/4), the 400-
intermediate hurdles (55.50) and the 200-meter dash (22.56).
But in the end, it was Dianno's contributions that meant more teamwise,
because St. James, despite Wallace's fine efforts, finished fourth in the
standings.
"We knew we'd do well in the Catholic League championships," said Dianno,
"but we didn't know how well.
"My goal personally for today was to try to help the team out more than I
did last year. In four events last year I scored 24 points. This year in the
same four events I scored 30 points, so I feel I helped the team a little
more."
Dianno, like Taylor, says he is careful not to pay too much attention to
people who tout him as being some kind of super athlete.
"A lot of people tell me that I'm a gifted athlete and that I have a lot
of natural talent," Dianno said. "But I've worked very hard. I think that
it's through hard work that you attain the goals that you set. But it wasn't
just my hard work. A lot of other people were involved."
One of those people was Dr. John Cionci, the team physician for the
football squad.
"I used to be very nervous before track meets and football games and
anything big like that," Dianno said. "But I learned a way to relax. I know
this sounds kind of corny to some people but it's called self-hypnosis.
continued right below . . .
CHAMPIONSHIP MEETS
Year
Place
Points
1981
2nd
85
1982
T-1st
85
1983
T-4th
46
1984
12th
15
1985
T-1st
85
1986
1st
113
1987
1st
133 1/2
1988
1st
142
1989
1st
110
1990
1st
107
1991
1st
142
1992
1st
182
1993
2nd
107 1/2
1994
1st
117
1995
1st
130
1996
2nd
131
1997
1st
152
1998
3rd
78
1999
1st
103
2000
1st
97
2001
2nd
95 1/2
2002
2nd
90 1/2
2003
3rd
76
2004
3rd
78 1/3
2005
3rd
69
-
KEY PERFORMERS
ON CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS
THREE TIMES
Kimani Rice
1989-91
Steve Spencer
1989-91
TWO TIMES
Mark Dianno
1985-86
Steve Morris
1985-86
Tom Taylor
1985-86
John Suskie
1986, 1988
Christian Ford
1986-87
Mike Thomas
1986-87
Dan Taylor
1987-88
Kevin Howard
1987-88
Phil DiMaria
1987-88
Eric Householder
1988-89
Travis Sellers
1988-89
Aaron Baskerville
1989-90
Andre Conway
1989-90
John Taylor
1989-90
Miguel Conway
1989-90
John Stuart
1990-91
Brendan McDonald
1991-92
Carl Norris
1991-92
Jamal Love
1991-92
Matt Payne
1991-92
Brandon Deters
1994-95
Chris Westerman
1994-95
Ed Hughes
1994-95
Pat Loughney
1994-95
Rick Williams
1994-95
Sean Seraphin
1994-95
Brent Ryan
1999-00
Dan Maha
1999-00
Matt Moyer
1999-00
Robert Georges
1999-00
Dr. Cionci took all the people
in skill positions, the punt returners, quarterbacks and receivers, and he
took us through a
course in about an hour and taught us how to do it ourselves. Tom (Taylor)
took it, too, and I think it helped him as well.
One game he threw five touchdown passes and broke the school record.
"I use it everytime I compete. It helps me slow down my breathing and
block out the crowd noises. It's a heck of an
advantage knowing that you can come in and be able to block everything out
and concentrate on what you have to do. I just
think it's a great gift."
Paul Poiesz, McDevitt's head track coach, doesn't promote self-hypnosis
on the team, but he doesn't knock it, either.
"I didn't see where it would hurt," Poiesz said. "It certainly didn't
hurt them in football. Half the battle is the mental aspect,
and for those two guys (Taylor and Dianno), it did the trick."
NOTES: Steve Morris, who won the shot put (51-8) and Eric Young,
who ran the third leg on the winning 4 x 100 relay,
also played for McDevitt's football team . . . La Salle's Ron Bean won the
400 in 49.7 seconds and teammate Seamus
McElligott placed first in the mile (4:25.5) and 3,200 meters (9:41.2). The
Explorers also won the 4 x400 relay (3:24.6) . . .
Jim Donnelly, of Archbishop Ryan, won the pole vault (13-6). Charles Clark,
of St. John Neumann, won the 100-meter
dash in 11.01 . . . Monsignor Bonner's Chris Saddler won the 800 (1:56.6) .
. . The triple jump was won by Father Judge's
Steve Hettel (46-6 3/4), and the Crusaders' Jim Hanlon was first in the high
jump (6-foot) . . . Cardinal's Dougherty's Mark
Rusas took the discus with a throw of 143-5.
This story was written in 1992 after
Paul steered the Lancers to their eighth straight
championship and a record amount of points . . .
By Ted Silary
The Penn Relays T-shirt worn yesterday between events by Bishop
McDevitt's Terence Wiggins was proof positive that
the devastation had faded.
Not so for people's memories.
At the trials for the Catholic League track championships last Wednesday,
a 5-year-old boy walked up to Wiggins and
blurted, "I saw you on TV. You celebrated too early."
Then yesterday at La Salle University, after McDevitt had stormed to a
record 182 points en route to its eighth consecutive
outdoor title, its ninth in coach Paul Poiesz's 12 years (seven outrights, "shareds"
in 1982 and '85) and the 13th in school
history, a reporter approached Wiggins and said, ''Let's talk Penn Relays. "
Wiggins smiled, then noted, "I figured that was coming."
On April 25, in front of 38,508 spectators at Franklin Field and Channel
17's cameras, Wiggins was the guy who indeed
celebrated too early in the 4 x 400-meter Philadelphia-area championship
relay. He slowed and raised his arms in triumph
as he neared the finish line and was nipped by Coatesville's anchor.
"I haven't seen many kids cry in my 12 years," Poiesz said.
Said Wiggins, good-naturedly: "I wasn't going to bring that up. That's
going to blemish my (hard guy) reputation."
In football, Wiggins made the Daily News first-team All-City, then signed
with Boston College to play strong safety. In
basketball, he started at forward and averaged 11.6 points. Yesterday, he
won the 400 in 49.07 seconds, took second in
the 200 in 22.21, took third in the 100 in 11.13 and finished the meet by
anchoring the Lancers' record-setting effort -
3:19.15; the first three runners were junior Dan Smith, Carl Norris and
junior Calvin Smith - in the 4 x 400 relay.
Archbishop Ryan finished second by almost 5 1/2 seconds behind the
winners, so there were no Penn Relays flashbacks.
"I took (the Penn Relays loss) pretty hard," Wiggins said. "I cost us the
race. I let the other guys down.
"My parents taped it for me. When I got home, my mother chewed me out.
When I went out that night, it seemed like
everybody had seen it. I'm friends with mostly everybody at school, so
nobody gave me a hard time. They joked about it,
but nobody said anything out of spite. I've seen the tape a few times. As I
watch it, I keep wondering, 'What was I doing?
What was I thinking?' "
Said Poiesz: "A kid's response is going to be dictated by how he's
treated by his coach and teammates. Everybody treated
Terence well and he handled it well. I'm still kind of hissed about the TV
coverage. I thought they were much too harsh,
with Terence being a high school kid. He's not getting paid. He's not on
scholarship."
Wiggins had plenty of help as McDevitt smashed its own record for points
(142 in '88 and '91; the present scoring system
has been in place since '81). Teammate Jamal Love won the 110 high hurdles
(14.89) and long jump (22-10 1/2) and was
second in the 100 (11.08). Bill Ring, who will be one of the area's top
quarterback recruits next fall, was second in the
javelin (172-1) and high hurdles (14.97) and third in the discus (127-4).
Norris, who is bound for Lock Haven to play
wide receiver, was second in the long jump (21-11 1/4) and triple jump
(44-5). Dan Smith ran second in the 400 (49.22)
and came back 15 minutes later to place in the 400 intermediate hurdles.
McDevitt was so dominant throughout, Poiesz opted to not practice what he
always preaches after his team placed
second through fifth in the 100.
Although there were eight events remaining, he crowed to no one in
particular, "That oughta do it. "
AROUND THE TRACK
Archbishop Carroll's Chris Day swept the 100 in 10.97 and the 200 in a
record 21.76 . . . Bonner junior Brendan Benner
4:16.94 in mile, 9:38.2 in 3,200) and La Salle sophomore Paul Maida (50-3
1/2 in shot put, 133-9 in discus) also were
double winners in addition to Jamal Love . . . With 82, St. James was second
by 99 points . . . St. James's Bob Paden
won the 400 intermediate hurdles in a record 54.94 . . . McDevitt's first
four titles were in '67, '68, '70 and '79.
This story was written in 2000 after
Paul claimed his 14th championship . . .
By Ted Silary
If he had stayed with it long enough, Matt Moyer might have appeared on a
sports bloopers tape. Or in an emergency room.
Some guys are naturals at the pole vault. Moyer, of Bishop McDevitt High,
was a higher health insurance premium waiting
to happen.
"I probably landed on the ground more than I did on the mat," he said,
smiling. "I could tell you some great stories.
Shooting myself into the standards. Falling off to the side.
"One day in practice, I was going down the runway and my pole just
snapped. I fell into the box. . .Nah, I didn't get hurt.
It was kind of fun, actually."
Nevertheless, it was almost on that very day, in 1998, that Moyer waved
bye-bye to the pole vault and decided to try the
javelin.
In September, he will start classes at the University of Michigan.
Not bad, eh? Struggle at one endeavor. Switch to another. Become
proficient. Earn a scholarship to a prestigious university.
What a country.
Yesterday, in mist and drizzle at Widener University, Moyer gave a
strong, two-pronged performance as McDevitt compiled
97 points to storm to its 12th Catholic League championship (one shared) in
15 years. Also, the title was the 14th in 20 years
for coach Paul Poiesz and the school's 18th total.
Cardinal O'Hara (73), Archbishop Ryan (71), West Catholic (70), Father
Judge (68) and Roman Catholic (65) staged a
wicked battle for second place, but they were far off the Lancers' pace.
Jamal Huff accounted for 40 of West's points, winning the 100 meters
(10.91 seconds), 200 (PR 22.09), 110 high hurdles
(14.61) and 400 intermediate hurdles (55.54).
West Catholic coach Lenny Jordan said Huff will likely pick among
Nebraska, Miami, Florida State and Temple.
The 6-1, 185-pound Moyer captured the javelin with a personal record of
212 feet even. He also took second in the discus
(124-7) to teammate Brent Ryan (126-11).
Also headlining for the Lancers was East Stroudsburg basketball signee
Robert Georges, who won the long jump (20-81/4)
and triple jump (44-11/4) and tied for third in the high jump (5-10).
The lone record-breaking effort belonged to O'Hara's Pat Nash, who
clocked 1:52.95 in the 800.
Moyer didn't mind the sloppy conditions.
"It's strange," he said, "but in the last couple of meets, I've been
doing well in the light rain, or when the ground is wet, at
least. I guess that's because the ground absorbs my plant foot better. It
doesn't give me such a jolt."
At St. Luke, in Glenside, Moyer divided his springs between track and
baseball (pitcher). He decided to concentrate on
track at McDevitt and first dabbled in running and the triple jump, in
addition to the pole vault.
He's unsure whether his father, Danny - an energetic, fist-pumping guard
on McDevitt's first CL basketball team in '64 and
the longtime PA announcer at Lancer football games - or Poiesz was the one
who suggested a switch to the javelin.
"I think it was his dad," Poiesz said. "Whatever, he took to it fast.
"I know every year I mention my throwing assistant, Bob Supplee, but he
deserves so much credit. You can have all the
talent in the world, but if you don't do things correctly, you're not going
to amount to much. That's where Bob comes in. In
Matt and Dan Maha [second in the javelin at 186-0, fifth in the shot put at
112-8], he had very willing pupils. These guys
put in the time. Watching videos, going to clinics, etc."
Though Moyer tries just as hard in the discus, and might even compete in
that event at Michigan, his love is the javelin.
"It's a lot more technical," he said. "And, if you do have a good throw,
they go out there so much farther. They fly! And
you know it right away."
What Moyer did not know right away was whether he was truly receiving
sincere interest from big-time track programs.
"The first letter I got last summer was from Navy," he said. "I didn't
think too much about it. Then, when football season
started [he starred at tight end and linebacker for the CL Blue champs],
letters started coming from Nebraska, Georgia
Tech. . .30 big schools.
"Then Michigan called. I still didn't want to believe it yet. But then
they said to visit and I did and it was, 'Hey, this is true.'
Then I signed."
Not for the pole vault, of course.
--
WINNING RELAYS
400 Relay
Mark Dianno
1986
Christian Ford
43.25
Eric Young
Mike Thomas
Christian Ford
1987
Ellis Still
43.3
Brian Quigg
Mike Thomas
Curtis Wright
1989
Aaron Baskerville
43.28
Kimani Rice
Travis Sellers
Leonard Mason
1996
Levar Talley
43.25
James Sturgis
Will Wright
3200 Relay
Glenn Nuttel
1981
Greg McNutt
08:04.2
Jim McGowan
Pat Moran
Tim Goodwin
1985
Dave Maguire
08:00.6
Chris Selgrath
Dave Brady
Dave Collins
2002
Mike Smith
08:07.2
Brendan Trainor
Mike Woods
1600 Relay
*-Meet Record
Mike Colston
1981
Greg McNutt
03:22.8
Jim McGowan
Mark Simonson
Miguel Conway
1989
Aaron Baskerville
03:22.2
Andre Conway
Travis Sellers
Miguel Conway
1990
Aaron Baskerville
*3:19.44
David Smith
Andre Conway
Dan Smith
1992
Carl Norris
*3:19.15
Calvin Smith
Terence Wiggins
Eric Shaw
2001
Javon Epperson
03:24.5
Mike Woods
Tariq Boston
Abraham Doe
2004
Andrew Crawford
03:27.6
Richard Womack
Julian Edwards
Andrew Crawford
2005
Terrell Norton
03:26.7
Cary Smith
Julian Edwards
--
KEY PERFORMERS
IN
CHAMPIONSHIP MEETS
ONE TIME
Al Fennel
1982
Cornelius Merlini
1982
Kevin Sykes
1982
Mike Colston
1982
Tom Craney
1982
Chris Selgrath
1985
Dave Brady
1985
Dave Maguire
1985
Odell Sanders
1985
Tim Goodwin
1985
Don McNutt
1986
Eric Young
1986
Mark Dianno
1986
Pete Merlini
1986
Silas Blanchard
1986
Steve Morris
1986
Tom Taylor
1986
Brian Quigg
1987
Chris Tarlo
1987
Christian Ford
1987
Dan Taylor
1987
Ellis Still
1987
Eric Householder
1987
Mike Thomas
1987
Rudy Gaspar
1987
Chris Varilla
1988
Glen Naessens
1988
Jeff Wade
1988
John Suskie
1988
Kevin Howard
1988
Phil DiMaria
1988
Curtis Wright
1989
Keith Householder
1989
Travis Sellers
1989
Aaron Baskerville
1990
Andre Conway
1990
Bob Schulz
1990
David Smith
1990
John Taylor
1990
Kimani Rice
1990
Miguel Conway
1990
Steve Spencer
1990
Greg Mills
1991
Jim Bear
1991
John Stuart
1991
Kimani Rice
1991
Mark Zataveski
1991
Steve Spencer
1991
Bill Ring
1992
Brendan McDonald
1992
Calvin Smith
1992
Carl Norris
1992
Dan Smith
1992
Dom Gregorio
1992
Jack Boyle
1992
Jamal Love
1992
Matt Payne
1992
Terence Wiggins
1992
Andy Coyle
1994
Larry Singleton
1994
Ben Payne
1995
Brandon Deters
1995
Chris Westerman
1995
Dedan Tolbert
1995
Ed Hughes
1995
Levar Talley
1995
Pat Loughney
1995
Rick Williams
1995
Sean Seraphin
1995
Brian Rodgers
1997
Davien Ruker
1997
Fred Hanes
1997
John Adams
1997
Leonard Mason
1997
Mike Morris
1997
Rashawn Moore
1997
Ryan Petrucci
1997
Tim Hagarty
1997
Darryl Bond
1999
Remus Furr
1999
Shawn Bullard
1999
Brent Ryan
2000
Dan Maha
2000
Matt Moyer
2000
Robert Georges
2000
--